California property deed records are held by the county recorder’s office in the county where the property is located, and most counties let you search the index online for free and order a copy by mail, in person, or through a web portal. To pull the right document you’ll need at least one identifier: the Assessor’s Parcel Number, the grantor or grantee name, or a document number from a prior title reference.
Which County Office Holds the Records
California has 58 counties, and each maintains its own recorded documents. The office you want is always in the county where the property physically sits, not where the buyer or seller lives. Titles vary. Most counties call the office the County Recorder, but some combine the role with the Assessor or County Clerk. Los Angeles County uses the title Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk.
A web search for the county name followed by “County Recorder” will get you to the right office. The county website will list the physical address, mailing address, phone number, and in most cases a link to an online records search. If you’re not sure which county a property falls in, any online mapping tool or the California State Board of Equalization’s property tax page can confirm it from the street address.
What You Need Before You Search
County recorder indexes are not organized by street address. Documents are cataloged by the names of the parties (grantor and grantee), the date of recording, and the document’s unique identification number.1San Bernardino County Assessor-Recorder-County Clerk. Official Public Records – Recorder’s Index A search by address alone usually won’t work. You need at least one of the following:
- Assessor’s Parcel Number (APN). The most efficient search key. Every parcel in California gets a unique APN assigned by the county assessor for tax purposes. It appears on the property tax bill, on the county assessor’s website, and on any recent title document.
- Grantor or grantee name. If you know either party to the transfer, you can search the grantor-grantee index, which lists every transfer by both the seller’s and buyer’s names, grouped chronologically.
- Recording date range. Narrowing your search to the approximate year the transfer occurred saves time, especially with common last names.
- Document number. If you already have a reference to a specific instrument number or book and page from another document, you can pull the deed directly.
Finding the APN Quickly
The fastest route is the county assessor’s website. Nearly every California county assessor has a free online lookup where you can type in a street address and get the APN, the current assessed value, and property tax information. The APN also appears on annual property tax bills and on any prior deed or title report for the property. Once you have it, the recorder’s index search becomes straightforward.
How the Grantor-Grantee Index Works
Most counties maintain a grantor-grantee index, the standard system used across the United States for tracking property transfers.2Legal Information Institute. Grantor-Grantee Index The grantor index lists every person who has transferred property, sorted alphabetically by last name within each year. The grantee index does the same for everyone who has received property. To trace a full ownership chain, you search backward through the grantee index to find each buyer, then confirm each prior transfer through the grantor index. Title companies do this before any sale closes.
Searching the Recorder’s Index
Most California counties provide an online portal where you can search the official records index at no cost. These portals let you search by name, document type, date range, and sometimes APN. What you get in the results is an index entry, not the deed itself. It shows the recording date, document type, instrument number, and the names of the parties. Some counties display a thumbnail image of the recorded document. Others show only the index data and require you to request a copy separately.
Online portals are useful for identifying which documents exist and getting the recording information you’ll need to order copies. For older records, particularly anything predating a county’s digitization cutoff (which varies but is often somewhere in the 1970s to 1990s), you may need to visit the physical office and use microfilm readers or bound index books. Staff at the recorder’s office can help with these older searches if you bring a name and approximate date range.
If the county doesn’t offer an online portal, or the document you’re looking for predates its digital records, plan a visit during business hours. Most offices have public access terminals where you can search the electronic index yourself, and staff can point you to the right place in the physical records.
Ordering a Copy of the Deed
Once you’ve identified the deed in the index and have its instrument number or book and page reference, you can order a copy. Most county recorders accept requests in person at the office, by mail with a written request form and payment, or through an online ordering system.
Certified vs. Informational Copies
Decide first whether you need a certified copy or a plain informational copy. A certified copy carries the county recorder’s official seal and a statement confirming it’s a true reproduction of the original. Lenders, title companies, courts, and government agencies generally require certified copies. An informational copy is the same document without the seal. It’s fine for personal reference but not accepted for official purposes.
Fees
Fees are calculated per page. In Los Angeles County, a certified copy costs $6 for the first page and $3 for each additional page.3Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk. Recording Requirements Other counties charge similar amounts, though exact fees vary. Informational copies are typically less expensive. Payment methods include checks, money orders, and credit or debit cards, though not every county accepts every form of payment by mail. Check the specific county’s website or call before submitting payment.
Processing Times
In-person requests are usually filled while you wait if the document is in the electronic system. Mailed requests and online orders typically take a few business days to process, plus mailing time. Documents that require review across departments or retrieval from physical archives may take longer. If you need a copy quickly, visiting the office in person is the most reliable option.
What You’ll See on the Deed
When you pull a recorded California deed, expect the page to show:
- Grantor and grantee names. The seller and buyer, including any entity names if a trust or LLC was involved.
- Legal description. A precise boundary description using lot and block references, metes and bounds measurements, or a combination. This is not the street address; it’s the surveyor-level description that pins down the exact parcel.
- Vesting language. How the grantee holds title (sole ownership, joint tenancy, community property, and so on).
- Documentary transfer tax. A tax amount stamped or printed on the deed face, based on the sale price.
- Recording information. The instrument number or book and page, the date and time the recorder’s office received the document, and the fees paid.
- Notary acknowledgment. Confirmation that the grantor’s signature was verified by a notary public.
Grant Deeds and Quitclaim Deeds
The two deeds you’ll see most often are grant deeds and quitclaim deeds. A grant deed is the standard for most property sales. When someone signs a grant deed, they’re implicitly guaranteeing that they haven’t already transferred the property to someone else and that there are no hidden encumbrances they haven’t disclosed. A quitclaim deed makes no such promises. It transfers whatever interest the grantor holds, if any, without guaranteeing the title is clean. Quitclaim deeds are common in transfers between family members, in divorces, and in situations where the parties already trust each other. If you see a quitclaim deed in a chain of title, it doesn’t necessarily signal a problem, but that particular transfer came without warranty protection.
Reading the Documentary Transfer Tax
California counties may impose a documentary transfer tax on deeds at a rate of $0.55 per $500 of the property’s sale price, and cities within those counties can impose an additional tax of up to half that amount.4California Legislative Information. California Code RTC – Section 11911 For anyone researching a property, this figure lets you reverse-engineer the approximate sale price. If a deed shows a transfer tax of $550, divide by the $1.10-per-thousand rate (combined county and city in most areas), and you get a purchase price of roughly $500,000. Cities including San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Oakland have adopted their own higher transfer tax rates, so the math varies by location. Transfers between certain family members and some other transactions are exempt, in which case the deed will note the exemption rather than a dollar amount.
Fixing an Error You Find on a Deed
Errors on recorded deeds are more common than you’d expect. Misspelled names, wrong parcel numbers, and garbled legal descriptions all appear. How you fix it depends on the type of mistake.
Index Corrections
If the deed itself is correct but the recorder’s index entry contains a mistake, such as a misspelled name in the searchable database, you can request that the recorder fix the index. California law requires the recorder to correct an index entry within 30 business days when you provide sufficient evidence identifying the error and its exact location in the index.5California Legislative Information. California Code GOV – Section 27201 The corrected entry will show both the original error and the correction in the public index.
Minor Corrections to the Document
For minor errors in the recorded document, such as an incorrect return address, illegible text, or a missing printed name near a signature, California allows re-recording with an Affidavit for Minor Correction. The affidavit must be attached to the original recorded instrument, describe what’s being corrected, be certified under penalty of perjury, and include a proper notary acknowledgment.5California Legislative Information. California Code GOV – Section 27201 This process is limited to clerical mistakes and won’t work for substantive changes like adding a new owner or altering the property description.
Substantive Errors
If the error goes beyond a typo (a wrong legal description, a misstated boundary, or an omitted co-owner), you’re looking at recording a corrective deed. A corrective deed is a new document signed by the original grantor that references the prior deed’s recording information and explains exactly what is being corrected. The original deed remains in the public record; the corrective deed sits alongside it and clarifies the intended terms. For serious errors the parties can’t resolve informally, a court action for reformation of the deed may be necessary, and a real estate attorney becomes essential rather than optional.
Social Security Numbers on Older Deeds
Older deeds sometimes included Social Security numbers, which is an obvious identity theft risk now that these records are searchable online. Every county recorder is required to create a public-access version of each recorded document with all but the last four digits of any Social Security number removed.6California Legislative Information. California Code GOV – Sections 27300-27302 This applies to documents recorded from 1980 onward, with counties working backward through their archives.
If you find a document containing your Social Security number that hasn’t been properly redacted, you can ask the county recorder to truncate it. The recorder must complete the redaction within 10 business days of receiving a request that identifies the exact location of the unredacted number within a specific document.6California Legislative Information. California Code GOV – Sections 27300-27302 The original archival record is preserved separately; only the public-facing copy gets modified.